Finanssivalvonta, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA), submitted more than twice as many investigations to the police than in 2023, its latest annual report states.

During the year, a total of 18 investigations were handed over, and FIN-FSA also issued nine penalty payments – a rise from none in 2023. The authority also issued one administrative fine, the same number as the year before.

The administrative fine of €90,000 ($97,500) fine was imposed on Finland’s largest pension provider Keva for failures in reporting derivative contracts.

“[The] growing popularity of virtual currencies has led to an increase in investment-type scams.”

Tero Kurenmaa, Director General, FIN-FSA

According to FIN-FSA, Keva neglected its obligation to report details of all derivatives to a trade repository – which is required by the EU Regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (European Market Infrastructure Regulation, EMIR) between 2019–2023.

Keva failed to report agreements on the transfer or delegation of its EMIR reporting with four counterparty banks. This resulted in the banks not reporting the derivatives contracts concluded with Keva to the trade repository. Nor did Keva undertake the EMIR reporting itself.

Supervisory priorities

In February 2024, FIN-FSA announced its supervisory priorities for the year. It has focused on operational and financial risks in the uncertain operating environment, long-term trends and risks, and the soundness of supervized entities’ governance.

Economic uncertainty, cybersecurity risks, and increasing regulation have all changed the operating environment, and the authority is set to focus on these areas.

“The biggest vulnerability factor in cybersecurity is people, however. During the year, we observed a rise in the number of various scams,” said Tero Kurenmaa, Director General at FIN-FSA.

Kurenmaa also added that fraudsters had been trying to impersonate the authority in scams.

FIN-FSA also adopted customer due diligence procedures on crypto-asset companies as a new focus due to risks of anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

“The total risk exposure of these entities is considered to be significant,” FIN-FSA stated.

Even though the EUʼs Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) gradually came into force during 2024, Kurenmaa said that the “growing popularity of virtual currencies has led to an increase in investment-type scams.”

Total number of supervised and other fee-paying entities